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What is Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing in its simplest definition is “marketing on or with a mobile device, such as a smart phone”.1 This week we take a 8-minute glimpse into mobile, its growth, marketing through mobile, and if you should embrace it.

We will also share some tips on how you can get into mobile marketing.

The Mobile Shift

How Many of Us Are Getting Up-and-A-Mobile?

The Australian population by September 2015 recorded at 23,869,00022. Of that, 62.84% or over 15 million Australians owned a smartphone. According to the IAB Australia/Nielsen’s ‘The Mobile Story’, that reads a 38% increase in over 2 years as at quarter ending July 2015, from 11.1 million to 15.3 million.3 This mobile shift is strong and the movement is still growing.

Ways of the Mobile Ones

We also like to use our mobile devices in shorter but more frequent sessions compared to how we use our desktops. To be exact, that is an average of over 4 times more frequent – 199 smartphone sessions compared to 46 desktop sessions per person in a month.3

The trend is also that Australians (18 years +) prefer to use their smartphones over tablet devices or desktops to read news and information, spending an average of just under 35 hours per person browsing or using applications per month.3

Average Time Spent on Digital Devices | Image Source: http://www.desketing.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/1448287200_7a87cd54d624da241efa7087c362d82e.pdf

Australian Population Clock, Aug 2016 | Image Taken Off: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs%40.nsf/94713ad445ff1425ca25682000192a2/1647509ef7e25faaca2568a900154b63?OpenDocument

#Mobilegeddon

Another reason for the increasing importance of, and shift onto mobile is because Google has developed a preference for mobile-friendly websites. April 21, 2015 ‘Mobilegeddon’ 4, was when Google implemented some tweaks to its search engine algorithm. Reports from Stone Temple Consulting5 and Adobe Systems6 showed that non-mobile-friendly websites suffered from those tweaks.7

Stone Temple Consulting studied 50,000 websites for one month after the changes took effect and found5

46% of those sites that weren’t mobile-friendly fell in Google search rankings

30% of those sites that weremobile-friendly gained in rankings

Adobe Systems studied over 5,000 sites and reported traffic to non-mobile-friendly sites from Google mobile searches fell 12% in the two months after April 21 as opposed to mobile-friendly sites.6

Why Mobile Marketing?

It is clear Australians are increasingly moving towards the mobile platform and doing more on their smartphones. What this also represents, is a new medium that can facilitate engaging ways of connecting with your audience.

Getting personal and up-close

Reaching out to your audience through their smartphones means the customer journey happens through their personal device. Literally, a brand gets closer to a user through a smartphone, as opposed to, through their computer monitors.8,9 That is a more personal engagement with the user and its psychological experience is distinct on its own.8,10

Micro-moments

The efficacy of using this mobile medium is improved by how attached users are to their smartphones. It is also a mobile device that users have with them most of the time.10 The consistent pattern of frequent usage speaks largely for itself. We now integrate use of smartphones broadly and in-depth into our everyday living seamlessly. Google expresses this very aptly as micro-moments.10

“At Google, we call these micro-moments. They’re the moments when we turn to a device—often a smartphone—to take action on whatever we need or want right now. These I-want-to-know, I-want-to-go, I-want-to-buy, and I-want-to-do moments are loaded with intent, context, and immediacy.”

Reaching out for that smartphone

We consult our mobile smartphone in most decisions and it is also one of the first things we do in the morning like checking emails and weather forecasts.8,9,10 Google’s research quantifies high percentages of users tuning into their smartphones when making decisions.

How to ‘Mobile-Marketing’

Based on current trends, mobile marketing is more than the newest shiny thing. It is the new way forward. It gives rise to new and more direct ways to connect with your audience and here are some tips to engage audiences on mobile.

Mobile-Friendly Emails

For example, links and phone numbers to be clickable, leading to an interaction beyond the email.12 You want to capture their attention in the email and continue to engage with them beyond that email.

Simply, you need to create an excellent user experience for audiences with mobile behaviour, searching for information on-the-fly. To draw you a picture of the opportunities that potentially exists – if each user experienced, say, a hundred mobile micro-moments a day, that means 15 million Australians represent, one billion five hundred million opportunities to engage with them every day.

Find out how Desketing can help boost your mobile marketing campaigns.